You say I'm HOW fat?!!

One of my clients asked me the other day about the scales that measure your body fat. She wanted to know if those were accurate, and then how they compare to the BMI measurement that is always referred to in articles about heart health.
So of course, that sparked a great conversation amongst all us girls.

First, BMI (Body Mass Index) is a measurement used to calculate your Body Mass and therefore the likelihood of weight related risks. But if you have ever Google-d "BMI calculator" you'll have noticed that you also get alot of comments voicing concern. Many people say, "I'm fit, but this says I'm so fat!" You need to keep in mind when you check your BMI that it is NOT the be-all, tell-all about your health. This calculation cannot take into account your muscle-mass. Two men the same height and weight can look very different; one can be a very trim body-builder and the other can be a large couch potato. But they'll have the same BMI.

BMI can be helpful if you need a frame of reference to help view your reality. People that live in very large communities (not a reference to populace)can easily lose track of a healthy-weight reference point. So if you weigh yourself and the number doesn't mean much because you aren't sure of what it should be, then you can calculate your BMI and get a more complete picture.

But to give you an idea, if I calculate my BMI I fall in the high "Normal" range with a 20.7. Then I can go home and use my scale which has the little magic foot spots that enable what's called Bio-Electrical Impedence (measures body fat percentage and hydration level). According to that I got anywhere from 19% to 22.5% Body Fat in a single day. Why? Hydration level. If I measure myself first thing in the morning after I first pee, then my body fat percentage is very low and so is my hydration level. After laying down all night, the water in my body is distributed differently through my body than if I give myself 8 hours of gravity to push and pull it around.

So these are all helping measures, but none of them are gospel. If you really want to know what your real numbers are then you have to get out the big guns. You have to contact a local university or hospital that has a hydrostatic weighing tank.

Now the next thing to discuss are those Caloric expenditure calculators. My advice is stay away. If you know that you're consuming 9,000 calories a day or you have been told that you are seriously obese, then these calculators can give you an IDEA as to how much you probably should be consuming each day. However, these calculations also need to be approached with care.

The main problem I have with them is their Activity Level options. Moderate daily activity includes 'carry a load' and heavy activity includes 'basketball' but nothing about how heavy a load, how intense the game of basketball or anything about duration! So I plugged in my age, weight, and gender, selected 'heavy' (because that option best described what I do each day) and it says I should eat 2894 calories a day!!!
Do you have any idea how much zucchini and kale that is?!

Moral of this story is: Don't stress these numbers! If you're hungry, eat a little nutritious something. If you're not hungry, don't eat. And there's very rarely a bad time to drink water, so take a couple swigs whenever your mouth feels like it should be busy.If you're feeling sluggish, get moving to push your blood around and get a little adrenaline going.
Know yourself. If you're not sure, then use these calculators to give you an idea or maybe to start dialogue with your doctor or personal trainer. Best of health to you!